Deadly: Cocaine worth £55,000 was found in the dead drug-mule mum's stomach

A mother died after packages of cocaine she smuggled into the UK from Trinidad burst in her stomach, a court heard today.

Nicola Last's family and friends thought she had gone to Spain to celebrate her 40th birthday, but she was part of a drugs gang that conspired to import the drug for sale in the UK, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

When she died she had 34 packages containing more than £50,000 of cocaine in her stomach and died of a massive overdose.

David Case, with whom Last travelled to the Carribean island, is jointly charged with Sebastian Stephen with conspiracy to import a controlled Class A drug and conspiracy to supply that drug.

Case, 44, of Kingarth Street, and Stephen, 40, of Adventurer's Quay, both Cardiff, deny the charges.

Huw Evans, prosecuting, told the jury: "We say these two men were part of a drug dealing gang. The evidence suggests that Sebastian Stephen recruited David Case to become a drugs carrier, sometimes referred to as a mule.

"David Case in turn recruited Nicola Last to help him bring cocaine from Trinidad back to the UK."

He said they both carried the packages of cocaine, which would have taken a considerable amount of time to swallow, in their bodies which had fatal consequences for Last.

"That's why Nicola Last is named on the indictment but unable to sit alongside these two defendants in the dock," Mr Evans said.

He told the court that Case and Last, who were thought to be friends but not romantically involved, flew to Trinidad for a seven-day trip on September 7 last year.

"A holiday to the Carribean was a major event for both of them, but both virtually told nobody they were going," he said.

He said that while they were away Stephen transferred £1,000 to a man called Haydn Richards in Trinidad.

Mr Evans said that acting on information received from South Wales Police, customs officers stopped Case and Last when they landed back at Heathrow Airport, searched their bags and used a body scanner on them.

No internal examinations were carried out and the investigations proved negative.

But at about 1am on September 16, he said, Last, of Barry, South Wales, was taken to hospital after she collapsed and began frothing at the mouth.